IrV:- ' : ' 


It 

h  - 


mi. 

CHRISTIAN  DUTY 

IHE  FLOWERS  COLLECTIOti 

IN 

THE  PRESENT  CRISIS: 


SUBSTANCE  OF  A  SERMON 

DELIVERED  IN 

THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  IN  WAYNESBORO',  GEORGIA, 

BY  REV.  R.  K.  PORTER, 

PASTOR, 

December  9,  i860. 


PUBLISHED    BY  REQUEST. 


SAVANNAH: 
STEAM  PRESS  OF  JOHN  M.  COOPER  k  COMPANY. 

1860. 


I 


Waynesboro',  Ga.,  December  10,  1860. 

Rev.  R.  K.  Porter  — 

Dear  Sir:  —  We  listened  with  gratification  and  deep  feeling  to  your 
eloquent  and  appropriate  sermon  of  yesterday.  The  pure  Christian  principles  it 
inculcated,  and  the  genuine  sentiments  of  piety  it  breathed,  lead  us  to  believe 
that  its  publication  wDuld  effect  great  and  permanent  good.  We  therefore 
earnestly  request  that  you  will,  at  your  earliest  convenience,  furnish  us  a  copy 
of  it  for  that  purpose. 

We  are,  dear  and  reverend  Sir,  your  grateful  and  obliged  friends, 
Edmund  Byne,  A.  G-.  Whitehead, 

E.  H.  Blount,  R.  H.  Oakman, 

T.  H.  Blount,  John  D.  Ashton, 

H.  J.  Blount,  Heman  H.  Perry, 

Gideon  Douse,  Chas.  A.  Thompson, 

W.  S.  C.  Morris,  John  C.  Poythress, 

John  P.  C.  Whitehead,  Jr.,       and  others. 


December  28,  1860. 

Messrs.  Edmund  Byne,  E.  H.  Blount,  and  others  — 

Gentlemen: — Your  favor  of  the  10th  iust.  was  promptly  received. 
Its  sentiment  and  expression  deserve  my  sincerest  thanks.  The  sermon  —  a 
copy  of  which  you  request  for  publication  —  was  unwritten,  and  it  has  hitherto 
been  out  of  my  power  to  write  it  out.  Such  as  it  is,  I  now  cheerfully  put  it  at 
your  disposal,  hoping  that  your  favorable  judgment  as  to  the  good  purpose  it 
may  serve  will  be  justified  by  the  fact.  You  will  discover  some  additions,  and 
many  changes  in  the  form  of  expression;  but  I  am  sure  nothing  inconsistent 
with  the  principle  and  sentiment  you  heard.  I  am  glad  to  furnish  anything 
which,  in  your  judgment,  will  be  of  service  in  this,  our  great  emergency. 

Faithfully  yours. 

R.  K.  Porter. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


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SERMON. 


PSALM  CXXY. 

It  is  under  a  very  deep  sense  of  my  responsibility  to  God 
and  His  people,  that,  as  His  minister  and  your  pastor,  I  stand 
before  you  to  discliarge  that  duty  which  I  solemnly  believe 
devolves  on  me  to-day.  As  a  citizen  of  the  State  it  has  been 
my  duty  to  make  up  and  hold  opinions  on  all  questions  of 
governmental  policy ;  but  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  by  that 
higher  obligation,  have,  as  .you  and  all  will  bear  me  wit- 
ness, scrupulously  abstained  from  publishing  or  pressing  those 
opinions  either  in  public  or  private.  Nor  does  the  duty  of 
this  hour  demand,  or  permit,  me  to  follow  the  sad  and  unhal- 
lowed example  of  those  who,  bringing  "politics"  into  the 
pulpit,  have  dishonored  the  very  temple  of  God,  and  contrib- 
uted so  largely  to  bring  about  the  melancholy  condition  in 
which,  our  country,  with  all  its  dearest  interests,  is  now 
placed.  Deeper  and  broader  than  all  the  temporary  ques- 
tions of  party,  far  more  powerful  and  sweeping  than  any 
measure  of  passing  policy,  are  those  principles  which,  before 
God,  I  believe  to  be  in  issue.  In  the  strange  providence  of 
God,  there  has  come  upon  us  now,  what  must  come  to  every 
man  and  every  people,  sooner  or  later,  the  tremendous  ques- 
tion of  giving  up  or  maintaining  the  great  principles  of 
eternal  justice,  righteousness  and  truth;  which  duty  is  im- 
measureably  more  solemn  and  imperative  on  us  who  "have 
come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this,"  by  reason  of 
the  fact  that  we  stand  out  the  inheritors  and  trustees  of  those 
principles  as  they  have  been  by  God  in  nature,  providence 
and  grace,  brought  out  in  all  the  past:  and  so  given,  not 
for  ourselves  alone,  but  to  be  transmitted,  in  all  their  un- 


• 


6 

sullied  integrity  to  those  wlio  shall  come  after  iis.  It  is  not 
mere  policy,  but  fundamental  and  vital  principle,  that  is  in  the 
great  questions  now  up  for  adjudication. 

The  Word  of  God  brings  all  the  obligation  of  its  sanctions 
to  bear  on  all  the  relations  and  duties  of  human  life.  Not 
alone  on  those  arising  from  birth  and  blood,  but  those  yet 
more  comprehensive  which  are  founded  in  the  nature  of  man 
as  a  social  being,  and  living  in  communities.  The  subjection 
of  soul  and  conscience  to  the  Lord  Christ,  is  the  comprehen- 
sive circle  going  round  and  covering  all  the  earthly  relations 
and  duties  of  human  life.  And  the  principles  of  His  rule  gov- 
erning all  these  must  be  declared  and  enforced  by  His  servants 
both  in  the  pulpit  and  out  of  it,  in  season  and  out  of  season. 
The  term  State  is  but  a  single  expression  for  certain  relations 
and  duties  held  and  owed  by  the  many  individuals  in  it,  the 
one  to  the  other,  and  each  to  all.  While  it  has  a  certain  or- 
ganic life  of  its  own,  that  life,  in  the  last  analysis,  grows  out 
of  the  individuals  so  related.  The  rights  and  duties  under 
this  relation  are,  therefore,  mutual  and  reciprocal.  The  State 
having  its  origin  in  the  nature  of  man,  created  by  God,  with  its 
rights,  privileges  and  duties  eliminated  and  established  by  the 
workings  of  His  overruling  providence  and  grace,  is  itself 
clearly  the  creature  of  God.  He  must  then  put  the  mark  of 
His  curse  on  that  State  whose  principles  and  practices  are  in- 
consistent with  Himself ;  just  as  He  does  on  the  individual  life- 
and  in  this  case  He  does  it  by  putting  it  on  the  individuals 
comprising  the  state.  And  this  is  not  constituting  the  State 
a  Theocracy ;  but  tracing  back  and  settUng  the  principles  of 
truth  and  right,  of  law  and  liberty,  the  only  endurable  prin- 
ciples of  individual  or  political  life,  to  their  own  high  and  eter- 
nal seat  and  source,  whence  they  get  all  their  glory  and  pow- 
er, and  where  we  are  to  look  for  the  guarantee  of  their  ulti- 
mate and  most  splendid  triumph.  He  is  the  God,  the  Friend 
and  Guardian  of  these  principles ;  and  by  His  own  awful  sov- 
ereignty is  pledged  to  their  integrity  and  success.  The  origin, 
then,  of  the  relation  of  citizen  and  state,  with  all  the  rights, 
privileges,  and  duties  growing  out  of  it,  is  high  and  holy  as 


7 


Keaven,  even  as  God  Himself:  not  the  creature  of  accident, 
convenience,  temporary  agreement,  nor  yet  even  of  human 
necessity  alone ;  but  is  from  and  of  Him  who  only  is  spotless 
Justice  and  Truth.  Thus  we  take  hold  directly  on  the  eternal 
sceptre ;  and  thus  the  almighty  arm  of  the  King  of  Kings  and 
Lord  of  Lords,  the  shield  of  certain  protection  and  deliverance, 
is  around  and  over  that  state  making  its  appeal  at  once  to  His 
justice  and  power.  As  the  origin  of  this  relation  and  these 
duties  is  awful  and  holy,  so  unspeakably  is  the  obligation  to 
the  defence  of  the' relation  and  the  discharge  of  its  duties,  upon 
those  into  whose  hands  Grod,  by  His  providence  and  grace,  has 
committed  the  sacred  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness.  From 
the  awful  majesty  of  His  own  eternal  throne  are  issued  those 
commands  that  put  us  under  unalterable  and  most  holy  obli- 
gation. .  And  so  here,  as  in  all  else  that  concerns  human  life, 
everything  is  resolved  back  into  moral  and  religious  duty — 
duty  to  Grod.  The  sanctions  of  eternity  are  brought  to  bear 
on  the  citizen  ;  before  him  is  erected  G-od's  final  tribunal,  and 
by  all  the  solemnity  and  power  of  its  eternal  retributions  must 
he  be  held  to  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  citizenship,  just  as 
he  is,  by  the  same  authority,  under  obligation  to  any  of  the 
more  limited  relations  of  this  life. 

An  intelligent,  clear,  and  solemn  conviction  of  his  personal 
duty,  is  the  first  obligation  of  every  individual.  He  cannot, 
in  the  eye  of  God,  be  lost  in  the  mass,  and  ignore  his  personal 
responsibility  in  the  crowd  of  voters:  nor  shall  he  fold  his 
hands  in  the  indifference  of  that  negligence  that  presumes  nei- 
ther to  form  or  affect  public  opinion.  To  the  full  extent  of 
God's  endowment  of  ability  is  he  bound  to  put  forth  his  pow- 
er. This  duty  is  really  unmistakeable  when  you  consider  the 
nature  of  our  own  State  or  government.  It  is  emphatically  a 
government  of  the  people.  The  ^'people"  is  composed  of  in- 
dividuals, and  upon  each  rests,  with  all  its  weight,  the  solemn 
responsibility  of  the  whole.  What  will  others  do?  must  nev- 
er be  the  question ;  but,  what  ought  I,  in  the  fear  of  God  and 
view  of  coming  judgment,  to  do  ?  With  us  the  people  is  the 
source  of  ultimate  power;  but  this  power  is  not  exercised  di- 


8 


Meetly,  but  througli  chosen  representatives.  And  so  it  is  in  the 
union  of  one,  or  the  larger  union  of  many  states.  Though 
'  the  people  be  the  court  of  last  appeal,  ours  is  not  a  pure  de- 
mocracy, but  a  representative  government :  in  which  represen- 
tation, whether  of  one  or  many  states,  each  man  is,  in  the  per- 
son of  his  representative,  as  virtually  present  as  though  there 
himself  By  their  represented  sovereignty,  the  people  of  sev- 
eral states  agree  upon  an  instrument,  called  the  constitution, 
by  and  under  which  are  created,  defined,  and  made  obligatory, 
not  the  primary  relation  and  duties  of  citizen  and  state,  for 
these  exist  before ;  but  the  relatiori^nd  duties  now  created  by 
this  new  and  voluntary  agreement  This  written  compact  and 
^  covenant  of  agreement  between  the  sovereign  parties,  and  for 
certain  ends,  as  it  makes  the  relation  and  consequent  duties,  so 
as  long  as  it  exists,  it  is  the  final  and  absolute  law.  -  Ours  is 
not  the  government  of  the  masses,  or  of  an  unbridled  majority, 
but  of  a  Constitution ;  and,  so  long  as  it  exists,  though  you 
were  the  solitary  man  who  stood  upon  it,  you  have  the  only 
right  to  rule  the  whole.  If  the  compact  fail  of  its  ends  it  is 
potentially  dead :  if  by  any  of  the  parties  it  be  defeated,  it  is 
by  such  act  positively  abrogated,  null  and  void.  And  all  the 
rights  and  duties  of  the  relation,  though  obligatory  under  the 
compact,  do,  by  its  destruction,  revert  back  to  where  they  re- 
sided before  delegation  under  the  agreement,  to  take,  under 
some  different  arrangement,  what  form  soever  may  be  neces- 
sary to  their  preservation. 

Upon  these  general  principles  of  civil  liberty  and  self-gov- 
ernment we  are  all  agreed.    The  necessity  then  is  manifest, 
imperative  and  pressing  first  and  heaviest  of  all,  of  the  indi- 
viduals composing  "the  people,"  knowing  and  loving  the  true 
and  right — knowledge  and  love  being  equally  essential.  In 
I     ignorance  we  cannot  love  or  do  the  truth  ;  and  though  know- 
i     ing  we  will  not  do  it  unless  we  love  it.    As  for  the  individual, 
'     so  must  there  be  for  our  safety  as  a  state,  not  simply  intellec- 
tual, but  heart  conviction — knowledge,  love,  and  desire  for 
righteousness  and  truth.    It  is  in  the  heart  that  the  throne 
must  be  erected.    There  at  last  is  the  great  seat  and  centre  of 


%i4 


control.    You  may  forever  inform  and  enligliten,  but  tbe  sad.  ^i^^i-^^ 


■/.el 


end  will  be  bitter  and  irretrievable  disaster  if  you  cannot  pu-  -i>^,. 
rify  and  subdue.    The  soul  and  conscience  must  be  brought ; 
into  loving  allegiance  unto  eternal  holiness  and  right.  After 
all  spoken  and  written  on  it,  there  is  no  true  liberty  but  in    l  ^  y  ^ 
freedom  from  sin  and  devotion  to  divine  right,  which  is  sim-       ^-  " 
ply  subjection  to  righteous  law.    No  yoke  is  so  hard  and 
heav}^,  no  fetters  so  tight  and  galling,  as  bondage  to  the  vice 
of  an  evil  heart.    As  there  is  no  bondage  like  that  of  subjec- 
tion to  evil  and  wrong,  so  there  is  no  liberty  like  that  of  ab- 
solute allegiance  to  the  good  and  right.    So  then,  to  save  the 
man  or  state,  you  must  go  to  the  individual ;  there  is  the  pow- 
er, and  there  the  responsibility.    You  must  reform  and  purify 
this,  the  source  of  all  vital  energy. 

But  hov\^  ?    Shall  it  be  left  to  politicians  ?    Alas !  how 
few  of  them  are  lifted  above  m.ere  parties  and  personal 
aggrandizement!    Hovf  few  seem  conscious  of  the  real  issues, 
and  are  able  to  go  to  the  heart  and  root  of  the  great  trouble. 
Mere  education  of  intellect  will  not  satisfy,  for  by  it  you  may 
make  of  the  individual,  and  so  of  the  State;  onlj^  a  more 
refined  and  terrible  instrument  of  ruin  for  self  and  others.  |^V-- 
Moral  suasion  is  exhorting  over  the  stream  while  the  fountain  •  ,.   • ; 
is  corrupt.  All  human  devices  utterl}^  fail  to  reach  the  seat  of 
the  disorder.    What  then  ?    In  all  the  ages  nothing  sufficient  / 
for  the  man  or  the  State  has  been  found  save  the  Gospel  of 
Christ.   It  is  only  as  the  principles  of  Grod  in  the  Gospel  of  his  p(- 


Son  have  rule  in  the  heart  and  outworking  in  life,  that  we 
have  hope  for  ourselves  or  our  countrj^,  now  or  hereafter.  God 
forbid !  that  I  ever?  hint  a  union  of  Church  and  State.  Never ! 
But  by  all  that  is  holy  and  dear,  now  and  ever,  a  heart  union 
ofjiiaii_^aid  religion.  It  is  not  of  the  Gospel  as  an  abstrac- 
tion, nor  jQi  of  formal  theological  system,  grand  and  stately 
and  cold ;  but  that  Gospel  with  all  its  blessed  doctrine  and 
precept,  and  by  the  Almight}^  Spirit,  the  power  of  God  and 
the  wisdom  of  God,  in  heart  and  life,  unto  temporal  and  eter- 
nal salvation.  In  every  heart  into  which  it  thus  enters  it 
must  work  with  a  divine  energy.    Producing  in  the  first 


^1 

}  ! 


10 


place,  absolute  heart-allegiance  to  Grod,  through  our  Lord 
Christ,  the  God  of  holiness,  justice  and  right;  obedience  to 
His  law,  simple,  unquestioning  and  uncompromising.  And 
secondly,  purity  of  life ;  because  the  heart,  the  source  of  life, 
is  purified  and  controlled  by  the  indwelling  of  Christ's  law. 
And  so  in  the  third  place,  there  follows  a  subjection  of  will 
to  the  truest  justice  and  right;  the  truest,  because  of  Him, 
for  in  Him  onl}^  have  we  infallible  guarantee  of  truth.  The 
temper  of  the  man  then  is  devotion  to  all  right  as  taught  in 
His  Word.  Not  in  one,  or  several  of  its  parts,  but  in  all  is 
the  heart  united  to  fear  his  name.  Upon  him  are  brought  to 
bear  the  most  solemn  sanctions,  within  him  are  working  the 
noblest  motives  known  to  humanity.  And  by  an  all  control- 
ling necessity  of  power  and  love,  he  is,  and  rejoices  to  be  a 
pure  and  faithful  law-abiding  man,  who  will  stand  to  his  cov- 
enants, who  sweareth  to  his  own  hurt  and  changeth  not. 

As  we  bring  the  light  of  these  general  truths  to  bear  on 
our  own  country,  what  it  was,  is  now,  and  but  for  godless 
men  might  have  been,  nothing  but  sadness  and  sorrow,  and 
the  conviction  of  perhaps  a  terrible  duty  before  us,  can  fill 
the  heart,  in  the  days  of  our  fathers  this  was  mainly  a  God- 
fearing, Bible,  Christian  people.  To  a  controlling  extent  the 
heart  of  the  country  was  under  the  influence  of  the  principles 
I  have  indicated.  A  pure  Gospel,  in  no  narrow  limits,  was 
preached  and  practiced.  Law,  obedience,  order  and  regulated 
liberty,  security  of  person  and  property,  was  the  blessing 
here,  larger  than  on  all  the  earth  besides.  But  alas !  how  is 
the  gold  become  dim  !  how  is  the  most  fine  gold  changed ! 
Whatsoever  else  we  may  claim,  surely  «this  least  and  last 
of  all,  that  as  States,  or  a  Confederacy,  we  are  a  God-fear- 
ing people.  I  do  not  propose  to-day  a  detail  of  the  sad  times 
on  which  we  have  fallen.  The  blind  see  it,  and  the  deaf  hear 
it.  From  one  end  of  it  to  the  other,  this  Confederated  Ee- 
public,  in  its  largest  and  least  members,  is  convulsed ;  and  as 
never  before  the  pillars  of  empire  are  reeling,  and  the  whole 
structure  totters  to  its  overthrow ;  a  convulsion  not  alone  of 
the  surface,  but  which  gives  to  the  very  depths  of  the  social 


11 


fabric,  an  agitation  that  sends  its  ominous  thrill  tlmaigh  all 
the  body  politic,  down  to  the  daily  business  and  bosom,  even 
to  the  home  and  hearthstone  of  every  man  of  us.  As  if 
never  before  having  had  their  trial,  great  principles  are  now 
again  ripped  up  and  put  upon  their  passage.  We  seem  well 
nigh  verging  back  again  to  moral  and  political  anarchy  and 
experiment.  The  deep  and  general  alienation,  the  wide- 
spread and  sorrowful  distrust,  the  want  of  faith,  and  miti- 
gated sense  of  obligation,  among  the  great  masses  of  those 
whom  w^e  were  wont  to  call  brethren,  all  give  the  saddest  and 
surest  portents  and  arguments  of  a  complete  and  perpetual 
separation.  Our  Confederacy  was  organized  upon,  and  has 
been  held  together  thus  far,  by  the  recognition,  more  or  less 
perfect,  of  the  great  law  of  God  in  all  His  works,  diversit}' 
and  harmony  of  interest  and  destiny.  Just  as  the  rights  and 
interests  of  the  different  parties  have  been  observed  accord- 
ing to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  great  and  ever-memora- 
ble agreement,  so  have  we  moved  easily,  harmoniously  and 
prosperously.  And  so  has  every  departure  from  that  law  of 
original  right  been  attended,  as  it  must  and  ought  to  be,  if 
death  do  not  ensue,  with  disorder  and  danger.  If  the  primal 
law  of  our  confederate  Government  were  observed,  there  is 
no  reason  why  we  should  not  have,  not  thirty -three,  but  one 
hundred  States,  moving  harmoniously  in  our  constellation. 

But  a  vast  region  of  our  countr}',  a  controlling  majority  of 
States,  a  majority  to  be  aimually  increased,  has  just  now  set 
at  defiance  the  fundamental  law  of  our  agreement  and  har- 
mony ;  and  what  though  it  be  within  the  letter,  while  opposed 
to  the  heart  and  spirit  of  our  agreement?  B}^  birth  and  im- 
migration the}^  have  multiplied  at  almost  a  frightful  ratio. 
Prosperity  has  poured  in  upon  them  from  a  full  horn  the 
ver}^  lavishment  of  her  blessing.  And  from  all  this  there  is 
begotten  a  lust  of  pride,  and  w^ealth,  and  power,  that  sets  no 
limit  to  its  over-reaching  ambition.  Capital  and  labor  dis- 
severed, and  so  often  antagonistic,  are  with  them  running  the 
race  of  a  fearful  competition.  In  numerical  power  the  labor 
must  always  have  political  control  where  universal  suffrage  is 


12 


the  law  ;  with  them,  then,  there  are  the  elements  of  a  strife  far 
more  irrepressible  than  is  possible  with  lis,  with  whom,  in  our 
social  and  political  organization,  capital  and  labor  are  identi- 
cal. But  for  once,  dissevered  capital  and  labor  are  agreed; 
and  wo !  worth  the  day !  are  arrayed  with  tremendous  forces 
for  the  subversion  and  overthrow  of  all  that  we  believe  essen- 
tial to  duty,  safety  and  honor.  When  some  historian  far 
down  in  the  coming  ages  shall  take  his  pen  to  write  of  the 
times  we  are  now  living,  it  will  seem  to  him  the  strangest  and 
the  saddest  sight  of  sinful  folly  that  he  must  record,  so  large 
a  number  of  this  Confederac}^,  arrayed  against  the  others; 
and  those  others,  by  facts  and  figures,  the  foundation  of  at 
least  the  material  glory  and  external  greatness  of  the  land! 
the  ground- work  of  its  wealth  and  power.  That  the  Morth  is 
so  arrayed  is  abundantly  evident.  He  who  puts  the  election 
of  a  single  man,  hitherto  almost  unknown,  as  the  cause  of  the 
present  troubles,  is  a  pitiful  sciolist,  worthy  only  of  contempt. 
That  man  is  indeed  but  the  puppet,  the  straw  exponent,  on 
the  great  wave  upheaved  by  the  greater  forces  at  work  under- 
neath. Destroy  him,  and  a  thousand  like  him,  and  yet  an- 
other, and  again  another  would  rise  to  be  the  embodiment 
of  those  same  principles.  The  truth  is,  the  heart  and  con- 
science of  the  North  is  against  us. 

The  most  their  wisest  and  best  can  sa}^  for  us,  is  to  let  us 
alone ;  and  to  us,  you  must  be  content  with  the  metes  and 
bounds  you  have,  and  seek  for  your  peculiar  social  organiza- 
tion no  outlet  or  expansion.  And  yet,  untrammelled  liberty 
is  our  heritage  by  the  sacred  and  cemented  legacy  of  birth 
and  blood  !  But  even  these  friends,  worthy  of  love  and 
honor  for  the  arm  uplifted  so  far  for  the  crime  against  us, 
hold  only  a  negative  position.  This  is,  beyond  all  doubt,  a 
controversy  in  which  we  can  allow  no  uncertain  words,  or 
mere  negation.  The  questions  are  too  solemn  and  absorbing, 
and  our  avowed  enemies  too  numerous,  positive  and  uncom- 
promising. The  great  wave,  now  touching  our  feet,  has  had 
its  spring  in  the  very  fundamentals  of  northern  society.  Give 
me  the  Pulpit,  the  School  and  Press,  and  the  home  culture  of 


13 


a  people,  and  I  will  make  them  what  I  please.  And  so  has  it 
been  in  this  most  solemn  matter,  with  some  few  illustrious 
exceptions  in  each  department,  who,  though  utterly  impotent 
to  stem  the  tide,  are  beacon  lights  to  warn  us  of  the  danger, 
and,  while  warning,  to  speak  of  the  peril  and  darkness  as 
palpable,  thickening,  and  dreadful.  These  noblemen,  to 
whom  be  honor  evermore !  have  been  proved  few  and  power- 
less in  the  mass  against  us.  The  Pulpit,  Press  and  School, 
the  home  and  cradle  culture,  is  a  serried  phalanx  of  opposi- 
tion. All  noble  principles  and  lofty  motives  have  been  torn 
down,  or  suborned  from  their  holy  heights,  and  invested  with 
the  black  and  unhallowed  garniture  of  unrighteousness,  forced 
to  do  service  in  this  relentless  crusade.  Thus,  a  society  dis- 
eased and  inflamed  at  the  heart,  can  never  be  appeased.  And 
3^et,  in  the  fear  of  Grod,  and  view  of  Judgment,  I  say  it,  all 
this  against  a  forbearing  and  unoffending  people.  With  con- 
fession and  repentance,  we  say,  not  a  sinless,  but,  as  to  the 
relation  of  master  and  servant,  not  a  sinning  people.  It  is  not 
included  in  my  line  of  thought,  to-day,  to  prove  the  right- 
eousness of  our  relation  of  master  and  servant,  nor  is  it  neces- 
sary. The  argument  is  for  us  settled ;  and  satisfies  the  logic 
of  our  intellect  and  the  conviction  of  our  heart.  We  will  no 
more  degrade  it  by  putting  it  on  passage.  God,  speaking 
through  nature,  reason,  providence  and  scripture,  acquits  of 
sin  as  to  the  relation  itself.  But  alas !  as  in  all  human  rela- 
tions, not  guiltless  as  to  its  duties.  It  is  against  the  relation 
itself,  that  the  war  now  wages.  The  gift  of  these  people,  who 
stand  to  us  so  related,  is  a  solemn  and  sacred  trust  given  us  of 
God,  and  as  the  Lord  liveth,  let  us  be  true  to  it ;  to  the 
defence  of  the  bodies  and  souls  of  our  servants.  To  whom 
else  shall  they  look,  and  who  else  will  God  hold  responsible, 
but  those  who  are  by  nature  and  providence  their  guardians  ? 
Let  the  stranger  and  unbeliever  say  or  think  what  he  maj^, 
this  is  with  us  not  a  question  of  profit  and  loss,  but  of  right 
and  duty  to  our  servants,  as  to  ourselves.  And  so  the  issues 
are  vital  with  us ;  to  every  obligation  of  religion,  duty,  safety 
and  honor.    The  moral  and  religious  duty  we  owe  them  as 


14 

moral  and  responsible  beings  cannot  be  discharged  as  matters 
now  stand.  And  this  consideration  alone,  the  duty  we  owe 
to  our  servants,  lifts  the  whole  question  immeasurably  above 
the  level  of  common  things,  and  invests  it  with  the  awful 
sanctions  of  the  Judgment  bar  itself. 

The  fell  spirit  in  the  heart  of  this  war  against  us  is,  while 
hot  and  fiery,  cool,  relentless  and  unscrupulous  in  instrument 
and  purpose.  Every  weapon,  holy  or  unholy,  human  or  di- 
vine, that  can  be  seized  and  perverted,  is  grasped  by  sinewy 
and  determined  hand,  and  directed  in  every  way  to  reach  the 
settled  end.  Before  that  Spirit,  all  that  interposes  must  go 
down  in  a  common  rum.  AVould  to  Grod !  we  might  see  all 
this  to-day,  as  no  fancy,  or  exaggerated  dream,  but  as  living 
and  apalling  fact ;  on  which  all  history  pouis  the  confirmatory 
light  of  truth  concerning  fanatacism  and  sinful  folly.  I  be- 
seech you,  brethren  of  a  common  destiny,  and  a.  common 
honor,  who  must  rise  or  fall  together,  see  now  the  personal  res- 
ponsibility, the  weight  of  ineffable  dut}^,  the  high  and  awful 
charge  in  which  as  Christian  men  you  are  placed.  Rise  to  the 
height  of  the  great  argument ;  not  that  of  policy,  but  princi- 
ple. With  details  of  time,  means  and  method  of  meeting  the 
exigency,  we  have,  to-day,  nothing  to  do.  To  other  places, 
and  to  heads  and  hearts  as  wise  and  good  as  ours,  shall  all 
these  things  be  given.  But,  by  all  that  is  holy  and  dear,  see 
it  not  as  a  subject  of  parties  and  politics.  But  as  an  issue  in 
which  God  has  put  us  in  charge  of  the  temporarl  and  eternal 
interests  of  the  millions  of  two  races,  those  that  now  live,  and 
are  yet  to  come. 

Let  me  speak,  briefly,  of  the  Causes  which,  in  my  maturest 
judgment,  have  brought  on  us  this  trouble.  It  cannot  be 
that  immense  masses  have  been  so  moved  and  upheaved  by 
the  personal  ambition  of  a  few.  This  were  to  malign  their 
honesty  and  intelligence.  Nor  is  it  that  those  States,  that 
export  less  than  one  third  of  the  commercial  values  of  the 
country ;  through  whose  ports  the  immense  remainder  has  its 
largest  outflow,  and  the  inflow  of  the  returning  trade ;  pro- 
tected in  manufactures,  navigation  and  fishing,  to  the  detri- 


15 

ment  of  the  others,  have  but  little  benefit  from  our  union. 
Much  less  has  the  trouble  arisen  from  the  successful  passage 
of  any  or  all  single  measures.  Nor  can  we  see  in  it  only  a 
mistaken  philanthropy.  None,  nor  all,  of  these  causes  satisf}^ 
the  necessit}^  of  the  case.  They  are  indeed  but  the  superficies 
of  the  infinitely  more  serious  trouble.  The  cause  at  work  is 
deeper,  broader,  far  more  sad  and  dangerous ;  not  a  passing 
fever,  a  diseased  limb,  but  moral  malady  at  the  heart.  It  is  a 
superficial  and  utterly  insufficient  view  that  sees  in  it  all  only 
a  crusade  against  slaver3^  This  is  but  the  present  and  special 
manifestation,  in  which  it  is  now  finding  necessary  outlet. 
The  true  cause  is  one  that  will  live  and  riot  on  to  its  own  lust- 
ful and  ruinous  end,  though  no  slave  existed  on  the  continent. 
The  trouble  is  in  the  corruption  of  the  religious  element  and 
teaching  of  those  arrayed  against  us;  and  such  corruption  in- 
volves ultimately  all  moral,  social  and  political  depravation. 
Time  will  not  allow  me  detail,  but  all,  who  have  followed  the 
history  of  theological  doctrine  for  the  quarter  of  a  century, 
know  that  there  has  been  amongst  those  most  violent  against 
us,  a  constantly  progressive  departure  from  the  truth  of  Grod. 
That  truth,  not  as  expressed  by  church  systems  and  standards, 
but  by  the  pure  Word  of  God  as  an  authoritative  and  ulti- 
mate rule  of  faith  and  practice.  The  whole  record  of  history 
testifies  that  right  and  liberty  never  long  survive  among  a 
people  whose  theology  has  become  radically  corrupt.  In  cut- 
ting loose  from  God  He  cuts  loose  from  us,  leaving  us  to  the 
righteous  retribution  of  the  evil  embraced.  How  small  and 
insignificant  soever,  that  people  holding  on  to  God  is  invinci- 
ble. Departure  from  the  truth  may  be  in  the  first  instance 
very  slight,  but,  like  the  deflection  of  a  ball  from  the  mouth 
of  the  rifle,  it  makes  an  immeasurable  difference  in  the  final 
result.  So  seemingly  slight  departures,  long  years  ago,  fol- 
lowed out,  by  more  unscrupulous  and  daring  minds,  to  their 
logical  results,  have  issued,  among  vast  masses  of  men,  in  sap- 
ping the  very  foundation  of  God's  authority.  On  this  corrupt 
religious  element,  skepticism  and  infidelity,  both  native  and 
imported,  have  been  grafted;  and  so  having  their  root  in  the 


.16 


convictions  of  a  corrupted  conscience,  all  tlie  ttiightiest  powers 
of  our  nature  are  waked  into  vigorous  activity. 

It  is  invariably  true  that  in  the  Northern  States  those  Chris- 
tian men  who  hold  simplest  and  closest  to  the  Supreme  author- 
ity of  God's  word,  are  our  fastest  friends.  But  how  few 
they  are !  The  sad  truth  is,  with  those  who  most  have  the 
public  ear,  there  has  been  such  a  rendering  of  philosophy  and 
the  Scriptures,  that  their  divine  authorit}^  is  virtually  over- 
thrown. And  on  this  pile  of  awful  ruins  miserable  man  has 
erected  the  throne  of  his  own  pitiful  sovereignty,  and  is  hence- 
forth a  law  unto  himself  Infidelity  has  been  called  the  end 
of  abolitionism,  but  the  reverse  is  the  truth.  It  is  not  only 
the  cause  of  that,  but  is  the  horrible  and  prolific  mother  of  a 
thousand  other  monsters,  its  logical  and  legitimate  offspring. 
When  man  has  succeeded  in  throwing  from  his  soul  and  con- 
science the  recognition  of  subjection  to  God,  what  €an  control 
him  ?  The  destruction  of  the  greater  includes  the  less,  and 
he  is  henceforth  at  the  mercy  of  any  error  that  untruth,  inter- 
est and  passion  may  choose  to  put  on  his  intellect,  affections 
and  will,  even  on  his  moral  and  religious  nature.  When  the 
great  governing  principles  of  the  soul  are  forsaken,  moral 
anai:chy,  the  confusion  of  all  right,  lawlessness,  blindness  and 
spiritual  madness  must  supervene. 

The  powers  now  abroad  in  our  land  do  not  affect  alone  one 
institution  of  society,  but  involve  the  very  relation  of  human 
society  itself  It  is  infidelity  against  religion,  man  against  God, 
falsehood  and  wrong  against  eternal  truth  and  right ;  the  un- 
righteousness of  the  horrible  and  licentious  despotism  of 
unbridled  masses,  against  justice,  law  and  regulated  liberty. 
This  Spirit  of  Evil  is  radical,  agrarian  and  revolutionary, 
destructive  of  all  law,  moral,  social  and  political.  Under  the 
black  banner  of  death  it  unfurls,  there  is  gathered  every  type 
of  human  ignorance  and  error,  sin  and  folly  and  madness ;  in 
the  name  of  God,  yet  godless,  of  religion,  yet  irreligious,  of 
right  and  liberty  and  law,  yet  bent  on  foul  wrong,  despotism 
and  license.  Its  genius  is  the  demolition  of  "  all  honors,  au- 
thorities, pre-eminences  and  dignities,  to  obtain  its  own  dreadful 


17 


liberty,  equalit}^  and  fraternity.  To  this  end  everything  per- 
taining to  law,  justice,  truth,  honor  and  virtue,  must  give  way 
and  go  down,  until  nothing  shall  be  left  but  the  dead  body  of 
a  vile  humanity."  Vicious  and  disorganizing,  in  its  march 
over  a  land  its  feet  are  bathed  in  blood,  and  with  bloody 
hands  it  scatters  firebrands,  arrows  and  death.  Before  it  goeth 
the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness,  and  behind  it  are  the 
black  and  smouldering  ruins  of  homes  and  families,  of  Bibles 
and  churches  and  States.  The  moral  law  of  Grod,  the  political 
law  of  constitutions,  and  the  civil  law  of  statutes  must  be  per- 
verted or  abolished,  and  with  them  all  security  for  individual 
and  social  right ;  until  on  the  ruin  and  wreck  of  all  that  is 
holy  and  great,  the  block,  the  axe  and  the  stake  are  again 
erected  ;  and  righteous  retribution,  making  madmen  their  own 
executioners,  they  shall  by  desperate  experience  be  some- 
what brought  back  to  their  senses,  to  begin  over  again  the 
slow  and  toilsome  work  of  reconstruction. 

Such  is  the  hydra  now  lifted  up.  Cut  off  one  of  its  heads, 
others  remain,  and  the  one  cut  off  will  soon  spring  into  new 
life.  The  forces  at  work  are  many  and  various,  and  the  might- 
iest of  .  them  all  have  their  seat  in  blinded  and  perverted 
religious  sentiment.  The  tide  already  touches  our  feet ;  the 
white  caps  of  its  black  and  billowy  waves  are  nearer  yet,  and 
coming  on  as  fast  and  certain  and  sure,  as  the  mighty  causes 
that  gave  it  birth.  Every  interest,  that  Christian  patriots 
ought  to  love  and  defend  with  body,  soul  and  spirit,  threat- 
ens to  be  eno-ulfed. 

o 

What  shall  we  doF  Is  the  thrilling  question  that  breaks 
from  the  anxious  hearts  of  the  multitudes  of  an  inquiring 
people.  Shall  we  reason  with  this  direful  Spirit?  Were  it  sim- 
ply an  intellectual  error  it  would  have  been  long  since,  and 
could  yet  be  killed  by  the  invincible  logic  of  truth ;  but  its 
dangerous  life  is  from  a  heart  dissevered  from  its  God.  Will 
you  compromise  and  beseech  ?  This  Spirit  is  pitiless  as  death, 
remorseless  as  the  grave. 

I.  Our  first  duty  then,  for  ourselves,  is  confession  and  re- 
pentance toward  God.    We  have  been,  and  are  now,  a  sinful 

o 


18 


people,  not  only  for  the  duties  of  master  and  servant,  but 
those  of  all  our  relations  toward  God  and  man.  Let  there 
be  then,  by  every  individual,  instant  and  hearty  confession 
and  forsaking  of  sin.  Such  confession  cannot  be  made  by 
the  State  in  its  organic  capacity.  At  last  it  must  be  done 
where  the  power  rests,  and  by  the  power  itself,  in  every 
man's  own  heart.  I  have  no  hope  of  his  success,  who  goes 
into  any  great  controversy  with  skirts  not  clear  toward  God 
and  man.    Look  each  then  to  his  own  heart  and  home. 

11.  Let  us,  each  for  himself  and  all  together,  prove  God's 
warrant  to  sincere  and  persistent  prayer.  In  this  great  emer- 
gency I  wish,  above  all,  to  see  our  people  upon  their  knees ; 
laying  hold  with  an  unfaltering  faiih  in  the  Lord  God  of 
Eight,  for  wisdom,  courage  and  fidelity.  Forsaking  all 
earthly  confidence,  let  us  settle  back  on  the  unalterable 
power,  love  and  guidance  of  the  God  of  Justice  and  Right. 
In  every  heart,  above  every  hearthstone,  on  the  doorposts  of 
every  home,  in  every  hamlet,  town  and  city,  from  our  sea- 
board to  our  mountains,  let  there  be  written  in  letters  which 
no  man  may  mistake,  GOD  AND  OUR  RIGHTS.  Let  them 
blaze  like  letters  of  fire  on  every  banner  you  unfurl.  And 
be  w^ith  every  man  not  only  a  sentiment,  but  the  principle 
and  power  of  his  life.  My  brethren,  of  a  comm.on  interest, 
destiny  and  hope,  as  for  us  let  this  not  be  a  godless  adven- 
ture, I  beseech  you.  As  sure  as  we  now  live  we  shall  go 
down  if  unable  or  unwilhng  to  lay  hold  on  Him.  We  are  to 
show  Christ  in  every  act  and  scene  of  this  solemn  drama. 
The  Christian  cannot  be  lost  in  the  citizen,  the  man  in  the 
mass.  In  every  vote,  and  every  act,  though  it  be  in  lifting  up 
the  sword,  that  final  and  dreadfullest  earthly  argument,  let  it 
be  done  in  faith,  and  believing  appeal  to  the  LORD  GOD  OF 
HOSTS. 

I  beseech  you  away  from  the  dead  remains  of  parties  and 
party  bitterness,  to  cool,  calm,  prayerful  and  harmonious 
counsel  for  a  single  purpose,  the  integrity  of  the  charge  given 
us  by  The  Almighty.  Every  obligation  of  Religion,  Duty 
and  Honor  presses  it.    Duty  and  honor  to  ourselves,  hus- 


19 


band,  wife  and  child,  friend  and  fellow-citizens ;  to  the  de* 
fenceless  servant  for  whose  temporal  and  eternal  interests  God 
holds  us  responsible ;  duty  to  the  memories  of  the  Past,  the 
possessions  of  the  Present,  and  the  rio-hts  of  the  Future ; 
duty  to  ourselves  in  whose  trusteeship  is  vested  for  all  time 
the  priceless  wealth  of  God's  own  principles  of  truth  and 
right.  Then,  in  every  way,  and  by  every  God-approved 
means,  the  speediest,  the  wisest  and  best,  as  the  servants 
of  God  and  keepers  of  His  truth,  maintain  and  defend  the 
charge.  Again  I  remark,  it  is  not  for  me,  from  this  place, 
to  say  when,  how,  and  by  what  means,  the  emergency  shall 
be  met.  But  done  it  must  be,  and  speedity.  We  cannot 
let  the  waves  overwhelm  us.  If  arrested,  it  must  be  now, 
and,  in  God's  name,  let  it  in  every  way  be  a  final  settle- 
ment. Let  those  waves  be  destroyed,  or  turned  back  to  work 
their  ruin  on  those  who  have  raised  them.  Lift  on  hio;h  the 
shield  of  love  and  power  and  faith,  and,  if  dire  necessity  de- 
mand, let  there  be  built  up  between  us  and  our  foe  a  wall  as 
high  as  heaven,  the  barrier  of  a  complete  and  perpetual  sepa- 
ration. Let  us  get  ourselves  under  the  shield  of  God,  by 
prayer  and  faith  having  His  benediction,  and  so  atheism  shall 
not  be  our  curse  in  this  great  issue.  Let  your  men  and  mea- 
sures be  selected  and  adopted  in  fear  of  God,  and  view  of 
Judgment.  On  your  individual  action  be  sure  there  rests 
His  approving  smile.  And  whatever  be  the  number  or  mag- 
nitude of  the  disasters  present  or  threatening,  believe  and 
know  that  God  will  evermore  defend  the  Eight.  In  this 
struggle  you  and  I  may  fall  to  rise  here  no  more  forever. 
But  the  principles  for  which  Ave  shall  fall  are  immortal ; 
they  shall  live  on  and  bear  their  leaf  and  bloom  and  fruitage 
for  those  who  are  to  come  after  us,  for  whom  we  have  been 
faithful ;  and  from  whose  successive  generations  we  shall  re- 
ceive only  blessing  and  honor  in  all  the  after  ages. 

Finally  Brethren  Beloved  :  As  your  friend,  counsellor  and 
pastor,  by  official  relation  and  personal  affection  bound  to  you 
by  the  tenderest  and  holiest  ties,  let  me  urge  you  to  personal 
holiness  and  devotion  before  God.    It  is  not  without  the  sad- 


20 


dest  thoughts  that  I  contemplate  the  possible  results  before  us. 
Let  us  be  sure  we  are  individually  right  before  Grod  ere  we 
make  or  meet  them.  It  is  not  without  profound  emotion  we 
look  to  the  breaking  up  of  a  government,  venerable  by  age, 
and  the  sacrifices  of  its  origin  and  history ;  loved  and  honored 
by  us  for  its  benefits,  partial  though  they  ma}^  have  been.  A 
day  of  mourning  let  it  be,  when,  by  the  m.adness  of  our  ene- 
mies, such  a  febric  must  go  down.  But  to  a  Christian  free- 
man there  is  something  mightier  and  dearer  than  sentiment. 
Upon  the  high  altar  of  Justice  and  Right  he  can  offer  as  a 
willing  sacrifice  all  that  he  has  and  is.  Your  united  and 
unyielding  demand  now  will  save  the  Right,  either  in  the 
Union  or  out  of  it.  If  not  in,  then,  in  God's  name,  once  and 
forever  out  of  it,  as  wisely  and  speedily  as  possible.  On  this 
I  am  sure  we  are  agreed. 

As  strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  think  union,  right  and  peace, 
are  possible  only  by  speedy  dissolution,  for  thus  only  is  right- 
eous reconstruction  possible.  If  the  event  prove  it  impossi- 
ble, then  the  vvdsdom  of  the  severance  is  demonstrated.  For 
myself,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say ;  your  fortunes  are  mine,  in 
jo};^  or  sorrow,  sunshine  and  storm,  peace  or  war;  your  God 
and  3^our  people  are  mine.  I  came  of  a  race  who,  on  a  distant 
soil,  and  in  the  olden  time,  fought  for  Truth  and  Right ;  whose 
descendants  vindicated  their  ancestry,  on  many  a  field  of  our 
first  Revolution;  and  whose  children,  wherever  they  now  are, 
will  prove  themselves  their  worthy  offspring  in  this  our 
second  Revolution.  May  the  Lord  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac 
and  Jacob  bless  yoM  with  wisdom  and  strength,  counsel  and 
courage.  And,  Bi'ethren,  let  come  what  will,  see  to  it  that 
we  look  and  pray  to  Him  to  DEFEND  THE  RIGHT. 


975.  3     Z99H  1360-79  v.  5 

nos.1-14  342390 


G^eorgia  Phamphlets 


97e  .3    Z99H    1360-79  y.  5 

nos.1-14  542890 


